Pseudoenzymes 2016: from Signalling Mechanisms to Disease

11—14 September 2016

Liverpool Maritime Museum, UK

Pseudoenzymes can be defined as ‘proteins that are unable to catalyse chemical reactions compared to enzyme paralogues’, and until recently, their inclusion in a scientific agenda might have raised eyebrows.

However, the realisation that 5-10% of gene families encoding proteases, kinases and phosphatases are in fact pseudoenzymes, which have recently become recognised as essential regulators of biological processes, has led to much interest amongst bioinformaticians, structural biochemists, cell biologists, chemists and clinicians.

As our knowledge of pseudoenzyme function advances, it has emerged that detailed study of these proteins have also yielded unexpected fundamental insights into non-catalytic functions of their active counterparts. An interesting twist on the emergence of important signalling roles for pseudoenzymes is that since enzymes are major small molecule targets, pseudoenzymes probably also make up a major class of disease targets that we are knowingly (or more likely unknowingly) already modulating with drugs.

To celebrate, nurture and advance this exciting field, the world’s first dedicated pseudoenzyme meeting will take place in Liverpool in September 2016. This meeting brings together current experts in the field to help shape thinking and to capitalise on our knowledge of genomes and proteomes to advance the pseudoenzyme field into the 21st century.